Starting from June 1, Antai Group, a privately-owned coke
company in north China's Shanxi
Province, has offered all its 3,818 rural workers a pension
scheme that will provide for them after they retire.
Experts say that this social security program should eventually
catch on across the country, helping millions of underprivileged
migrant workers who play an indispensable role in the economic
development of Chinese cities.
According to the company's arrangements with a local insurance
company, each rural worker will pay five percent of their wages to
receive monthly payments after retirement. The company will
contribute to the pension program by paying 10 percent of the
worker's wage.
"We'll soon make the scheme available to all the 3 million
migrant workers in the province," said Li Shuntong, director of the
provincial labor and social security department based in Taiyuan,
the provincial capital.
Zhang Shiming, 62, was one of the first rural beneficiaries of
the new pension scheme. He had been working for more than 30 years
at factories and coal pits in Shanxi Province before he retired
in2003. Now he receives 372 yuan (US$45) a month from an endowment
insurance program.
"The amount is smaller than what most urban retirees get, but is
enough to cover basic living necessities in the countryside where
prices are much lower," said Zhang Yu, an official in charge of
rural insurance with the provincial labor and social security
bureau.
The well-being of millions of senile migrant workers across
China has aroused widespread attention from both the government and
businesses in recent years. Beijing has requested that all
employers to offer endowment insurance to their employees, rural
workers included. Many other cities have also underscored equality
between their rural and urban employees and demanded pension,
medical insurance and other security schemes for all their staff
members.
Feng Xiuqian, a private entrepreneur and political advisor in
southwest China's Chongqing
Municipality, recently sponsored a survey to solicit public
opinions about how lawmakers should step up legislation to
safeguard migrant workers' rights for pension.
"On the basis of this survey, I hope I can come up with a
convincing proposal to the municipal legislature," Feng said.
Though only a small percentage of rural workers are covered so
far by the endowment insurance, nearly all Chinese provinces and
municipalities are working on the issue, said Zhao Dianguo, an
official with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Eventually, about 100 million rural workers, or 97 percent of
the total migrants working in Chinese cities, will benefit from the
program, he added.
"As migrant workers often move from one place to another, it's
important for us to set up a nationwide social security network to
manage their individual pension accounts wherever they go," Zhao
said.
Figures released by the ministry showed that 113 million out of
China's 900 million peasants now work at construction sites,
factory production lines or tertiary trade, doing jobs that city
dwellers find too strenuous, dirty or low paying.
This special group of people, excluded for long from the urban
job market and social security schemes, drew unprecedented
attention in 2004, in the wake of a nationwide drive to tackle
their wage arrears -- in which Premier Wen Jiabao
himself played an exemplary leading role.
(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2005)